Amazon's game console to launch in 2014, report indicates

Amazon will debut a game console later this year which will run Android, says gaming-centric site VG247. Expected to launch with a sub-$300 price tag, the console will reportedly allow for downloaded and streaming games.

Senior publishing sources have been meeting with Amazon for a briefing on the hardware – which currently goes by a number of different codenames – and popular Android and iOS games have been used to demo the device… roughly the same size as the PSone redesign, grey in colour, oblong in shape and with sharp edges…being created in conjunction with subsidiary Lab 126, designers of Amazon’s Kindle devices.

There has been a steady rise of Android-based gaming devices from a number of players over the last year, however none of them has the brand recognition of Amazon. Thus far, NVIDIA’s Shield is the best product we’ve seen designed to utilize Android in an entertainment and gaming aspect. Should Amazon introduce an affordably priced console that taps into its library of Android games it could knock out a few startups.

We would also expect that a console from Amazon would harness its own services such as Instant Video, Amazon Cloud, and more. Our gut tells us that this sort of product would come with incentives and/or promotions that tie together Amazon Prime and Kindle products.